Twelve Teams, Two Conferences, 180 Games: The PWHL Grows Up

The PWHL started in 2024 with six teams. Its fourth season will have twelve, and on Friday the league showed what that means in practice: conferences, a longer schedule and one more playoff round.

The 180-game regular season runs from Dec. 5 to April 18, with each team playing 30 games, up from 120 games last year. Expansion teams in Detroit, Las Vegas, San Jose and Hamilton, Ontario, account for the jump.

Who plays where

• East: Boston, New York, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Hamilton

• West: Detroit, Minnesota, Las Vegas, San Jose, Seattle, Vancouver

Each team plays 18 games inside its conference and visits every market at least once.

A new playoff round

The top four in each conference make the playoffs, which now open with a best-of-five quarterfinal. The semifinals and the Walter Cup Final stay best-of-five.

The league is keeping one of its more fun quirks. The first-place team in each conference picks its opening-round opponent from the third- and fourth-place teams. That choice can say a lot about how a coach really rates a rival.

"The introduction of conferences and an expanded playoff format will deepen rivalries and fuel the competitiveness," said Jayna Hefford, the league's executive VP of hockey operations.

Weekends, and no long break

The schedule leans hard on weekends, with 49 games on Saturdays and 39 on Sundays. Wednesday is the busiest weekday with 31. The Takeover Tour of neutral-site games grows from 16 to 24, with locations still to be announced.

Because the IIHF has moved the women's world championship to November for good, there's no three-week midseason pause this time. The longest break is eight days in early March, built around the league's first All-Star event on March 7.

Six teams open the season on Dec. 5 and the other six play the next day.